Date Here
.
A Street Car
Named Desire
The Many Traits
of Blanch
Everyone has relatives that come and
visit. Some people don¹t like their
relatives and they hate when relatives visit.
Tennessee Williams shows this feeling between Stanley and Blanch in the
book A Street Car Named Desire. It is
the things that Blanch says and does that makes Stanley dislike her. Blanch is vein, untruthful, and is seductive.
Blanch is a very vein person. A lot of the things she does is so she looks
good. Stanley first discovers this in
³Scene Two²:
Stanley:
Look at these feathers and furs that she come here to preen herself in!
He believes that
she was swindling them, so he looks through her trunk and discovers a lot of
fancy looking clothing and jewelry.
Blanch has also been noted in ³Scene Two²
saying that she was vein When she was talking to Stanley:
Stanley:
It looks like you raided some stylish shops in Paris
Blanch:
Ha-ha! Yes-clothes are my passion!
She does not
directly say she is vein but it is implied.
Another time that she is noted for being vein
is in ³Scene Ten²,
this is when
Stanley and Blanch are yelling at each other:
Stanley:
And look at yourself! Take a look
at yourself in that worn out
Mardi Gras outfit, rented for fifty cents from some rag- picker! And
with the crazy crown on! What queen do you think you are?
Blanch:
Oh-God...
Stanley:
I¹ve been on to you from the start!
Not once did you pull any wool over this boy¹s eyes! You come in here and sprinkle the place with power and spray
perfume and cover the light bulb with
a paper lantern, and lo and behold the place has turned into Egypt and you are the Queen of the Nile! Sitting on your throne swilling down my liquor! I say-Ha!-Ha! Do you hear me? Ha-ha-ha!
He is saying that
she tries to look glamorous with her clothes and her jewelry, but he can see
through that and she does not look glamorous at
all.
One of Blanch¹s strong traits is that is a
compulsive liar. In ³Scene Three² she
admits to Stanley that she lies a lot.
Blanch:
All right. Cards on the
table. That suits me. [She turns to Stanley.] I know I fib a good deal. After all a woman¹s charm is fifty present illusion, but
when a thing is important I tell
the truth and this is the truth: I
haven¹t cheated my sister or you
or anyone else as long as I have lived.
Although Blanch
lies a lot, and she even admits to it.
In that paragraph she is not lying, as far as anyone can tell about what
she is telling Stanley.
In ³Scene Ten² Stanley and Blanch have been
talking and Stanley has been listen to Blanch lie to him.
Blanch:
But then he came back. He
returned with a box of roses to beg
for my forgiveness! He implored my
forgiveness. But some things are not forgivable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable. It
is the one unforgivable thing in my opinion and it is the one thing of which I have never,
never have been guilty. And so I told him, I said to him,
³Thank you,² but it was foolish of me to
think that we could ever adapt ourselves to each other. Our ways of life are too different. Our attitudes and our backgrounds
are incompatible. We have to be
realistic about such
things. So farewell, my friend! And let there be no hard feelings...
Stanley:
Was this before or after the telegram came from the Texas oil millionaire?
Blanch:
What telegram! No! No, after! As
a matter of fact, the wire
came just as-
Stanley:
As a matter of fact there wasn't no wire at all!
Blanch:
Oh, oh!
Stanley:
There isn¹t no millionaire! And
Mitch didn¹t come back with roses
Œcause I know where he is-
Blanch:
Oh!
Stanley:
There isn¹t a god dam thing but imagination!
Blanch:
Oh!
Stanley:
And lies and conceit and tricks!
Stanley had
gotten sick of listening to Blanch¹s lies, so he tells her that he knows about
the lies, conceit and tricks.
When Blanch lies to people she is deceiving
them which can hurt the deceived, and in the end the deceiver. In ³Scene Nine² this just happens:
Blanch:
What do you want?
Mitch:
[fumbling to embrace her ]: What
I have been missing all summer.
Blanch:
Then marry me, Mitch!
Mitch: I
don¹t think I want to marry you any more.
Blanch:
No?
Mitch: [dropping his hands from her waist
] You¹re not clean enough to bring in the house with my
mother
Blanch:
Go away, then. [He stares at her ] Get out of here quick before I start screaming fire!
[Her throat is tightening with hysteria
] Get out of here quick before I start
screaming fire. [He still
remaining staring. She suddenly rushes
to the big window with its
pale blue squares of the soft summer light
and cries wildly. ]
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Mitch had found
out about Blanch¹s lies from Stanley.
Now Mitch will not marry Blanch because he found out that she lied and
that he now knows the truth.
Another trait that has been branded to Blanch
is that she likes to seduce men preferably younger men which has been observed at the end of ³Scene
Five²:
Blanch:
You make my mouth water. [She
touches his cheek lightly, and
smiles. Then she goes to the trunk. ]
Young Man:
Well I¹d better be going-
Blanch [stopping him ]: Young man!
[He turns. She takes a large, gossamer
scarf from the trunk and
drapes it about her shoulders. ]
[In the ensuing pause, the ³blue piano²
is heard. It continues through
the rest of the scene and the opening of the next. The
young man clears his throat and looks yearningly
at the door. ]
Young man! Young young young man! Has
anyone ever told you that you
look like a Prince out of the Arabian Nights?
[The young Man laughs uncomfortably and
stands like a bashful kid.
Blanch speaks softly to him. ]
Well, you do, honey lamb! Come here.
I want to kiss you, just once, softly and sweetly on your mouth!
[Without waiting for him to accept, she
crosses quickly to him and
presses her lips to his. ]
Now run along, now, quickly! It would be nice to keep you, but I¹ve
got to be good-and keep my hands off children.
In this scene
Blanch seduces a young man that was collecting money for the Kowalski¹s
newspaper subscription.
In ³Scene Seven² Stanley is talking to Stella
telling her about blanch and how she ended up leaving school. It was because she had been seducing another
young man.
Stanley:
She¹s not going back to teach school!
I fact I am willing to bet you that she never had no idea of
returning to Laurel! She didn¹t resign temporary from high
school because of her nerves! No siree, Bob! She didn¹t.
They kicked her out of that high school
before the spring term ended-and I hate to tell you the
reason that step was taken! A seventeen-year-old boy-she¹d gotten
mixed up with!
When Blanch was a
teacher she had been seducing a student.
The parents of the student found out about this, told the superintendent
and she ended up getting fired from her job.
Not all the seduction she did was on young
men. She also tried to seduce Stanley in
³Scene Two².
Blanch:
My, but you have impressive judicial air!
[She sprays herself with her atomizer;
then playfully sprays him
with it. He seizes the atomizer and
slams it down on the dresser. She throws back her head and laughs. ]
Stanley:
If I didn¹t know that you was my wife¹s sister I¹d get ideas about
you!
Blanch:
Such as what!
Stanley:
Don¹t play so dumb. You know
what!
Her and Stanley
had been talking about her losing Belle Reve and she starts flirting with
him.
The traits that Blanches has only makes her
miserable. It also makes the lives of
the other characters miserable. Blanche¹s vanity only annoys Stanley this is
clear in ³Scene Seven². By now he has
gotten sick of her spending so much time in the bathroom ³freshening up² so he
yells
³Hey, Canary
bird! Toots! Get OUT of the BATHROOM!² to speed her along.
Being untruthful can have a great impact on the
lives of others. This is a big trait of
Blanches through the entire book she is untruthful. One life that has a great impact due to
Blanche¹s lies is Mitch which has been displayed in ³Scene 9
Blanch being seductive has some affect on all
the men¹s lives that she meets.
Blanch is vein, untruthful, and is
seductive. All three traits are negative
and do not give her a good personality.
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